I am a college girl. I am slow at getting ready in the morning. When I have an 8 a.m. class, I usually don’t have time to make breakfast or brew up coffee for myself, so what do I do? I grab a Diet Coke and head out the door.

I am guilty of drinking way too much pop, but before you judge me for drinking Diet Coke at 7:30 in the morning, take a long hard look at your Starbucks caramel frappuccinos, your pumpkin spice lattes and your coffee flavored energy drinks.

Yes, coffee can be very healthy and there are great benefits to drinking it. According to the Livestrong website, coffee has 300 percent more disease-fighting antioxidants than black tea and 3,333 percent more than an apple.

The best way to make sure you are receiving these health benefits from your coffee is to buy organic, that way you know it has not been chemically treated.

Unfortunately, the fancy drinks most people order from coffee shops are far from healthy.

All of these benefits  no longer in apply when the coffee includes massive amounts of high fructose corn syrup, additives, caramel and whipped cream.

Starbucks drinks have become more easy to access than ever before. They are now in vending machines. For people who are in a rush, this is the perfect opportunity to grab coffee on-the-go. There are standard options of plain black coffee and tea, but there are also Starbucks brand double shot coffee energy drinks.

A Starbucks doubleshot energy vanilla from a vending machine doesn’t contain a massive amount of calories or sugar, but it does contain guarana and taurine.

Guarana and taurine are the ingredients within energy drinks such as Monster and Red Bull. Taurine is produced by the body, but researchers are still unsure the effects that additional taurine has on the brain.

Guarana is an herb that has properties similar to caffeine, but the effects are nearly three times that of caffeine. WebMD states that Guarana is “possibly unsafe.” The things being added in these drinks are ingredients which scientists are still unsure of.

In the spirit of autumn, I will break down the famous pumpkin spice latte. A 16 oz. grande cup from Starbucks is 420 calories. Just to put that into perspective, a 10 piece McNugget from McDonald’s is 480 calories. One average sized pumpkin spice drink is almost as many calories as a meal from McDonald’s.

These drinks aren’t just bad in calories, but also in the amount of sugar they contain. One of my old favorites from Starbucks was a caramel frappuccino. A venti (20 oz.) caramel frappuccino contains 81 grams of sugar. For many college students who don’t really pay attention to nutrition facts that might be just another number.

The Livestrong site did a great job at putting into perspective how much sugar that actually is.

Drinking that venti caramel frappuccino would be like eating one full size Kit Kat bar (22g), one full-size bag of Peanut M&M’s (25g), one full-size box of Milk Duds (27g), and four Everlasting Gobstoppers (7g).

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that adult women take in a maximum of 25 grams of sugar each day and adult men take in a maximum of 37.5 grams each day.

One drink that we quickly slurp down to replace breakfast or as a quick energy boost is over double to even triple the amount of sugar we are supposed to have in an entire day.

A bottle of Diet Coke is the same size as a Venti drink, 20 oz. But there are 0 grams of sugar within it. Even in a regular Coke the amount of sugar is less, at 65 grams.

I am not defending my Diet Coke addiction because I realize its also bad. Aspartame, which can be found within diet pop, has been proven to have many negative health effects including: migraines, nausea, diabetes and other health issues.

Pop is something many people need to drink a lot less of, and I think we are all pretty conscious of that fact. Many people have given up or cut back on pop because the adverse effects are constantly being talked about.

But the flavored coffee craze that is sweeping the globe is just as bad if not worse and doesn’t get a whole lot of negative attention like pop does.

Next time you need to satisfy your coffee fix, consider getting regular coffee and adding a little bit of cream and sugar. If you must get the flavored specialty drinks, try ordering it with skim milk and skipping the whipped cream. It’ll taste just as sweet, but a little bit healthier for you.

Emily Gibbens is a staff writer for  The Dakota Student. She can be reached at  [email protected]